There’s a good documentary to be made about the long-term psychological, emotional, and developmental impacts of having millions of television viewers leer at your wealth and superficiality and relationships from the ages of 19 to 26 on a structured reality TV programme. Beyond Chelsea , a two-part Channel 4 series in which “friends” and original Made in Chelsea cast members Alexandra “Binky” Felstead, Rosie Fortescue and Lucy Watson offer a vignette of life in their thirties, is not it. There is no reflection on the phenomenon they were part of nor the influencer culture it spawned, no discussion of the effects of its glorification of the privileged, no conversations around how it changed entertainment, nor how it has aged, nor the pressures or trolling they faced as young impressionable women (or the effect they had on other young impressionable women watching).
There are instead: sustainable handbag inserts, a couple of references to changing nappies, and some self-identification as a “hustler”. It’s been a while since Felstead, Fortescue and Watson were cat fighting on the King’s Road. Felstead is now a “food and fashion ambassador” – we watch as a deal with Marks and Spencer is discussed – and a mother to three children.
She is also supporting her mother Jane who has multiple sclerosis. Watson is weaning her baby Willoughby, while still dealing with the fallout of her fertility struggles, and Fortescue is happily single, and working on her multi.
